[j  _  ^  4* 


X 

% 

The  Library  and  Collections 

^  OF  THE 

^  Chicago  Historical  Society 


^  By  CAROLINE 

N  1856,  just  twenty  years  after 
the  handful  of  settlers  then  re¬ 
siding  in  Chicago  had  organized 
as  a  village,  a  few  gentlemen 
met  and  founded  the  Historical  Society 
of  the  City  of  Chicago.  Among  the 
twenty  founders  may  be  mentioned  W'il- 
liam  H.  Brown,  the  first  president;  Rev. 
William  Barry,  the  first  secretary  and 
librarian ;  Messrs.  William  P>.  Ogden,  T- 
Y.  Ceammon,  Mark  Skinner,  George 
;Manierre,  J.  H.  Kinzie,  Dr.  J.  \\  Blaney, 
Dr.  X.  S.  Davis,  E.  B.  McCagg  aiifl 
Isaac  X.  Arnold.  Twelve  years  from  the 
date  of  the  adoption  of  the  constitution, 
Mr.  Arnold  in  an  address  before  the 
society  reported  the  total  numl>er  ot 
volumes,  manuscripts,  maps,  etc.,  as 
100,205. 

The  foundations  of  the  society  were 
laid  broad  and  deep,  the  object,  as  stated 
in  the  constitution  Ijeing  to  gather  the 
fundamental  materials  for  the  history  of 
the  X^orthwest  and  particularly  of  Illinois 
and  Chicago.  li  it  remarkable  that  Chi¬ 
cagoans  of  to-day  hold  in  affectionate 
remembrance  the  names  of  the  brilliant 
group  of  men  who  were  sacrificing  time 
and  money  to  preserve  for  future  genera¬ 
tions  the  original  sources  of  information, 
at  a  time  when  men  of  less  culture  and 
foresight  would  have  busied  themselves 
only  in  laying  the  foundations  of  their 
own  fortunes? 

The  particular  field*  of  this  institution 
being  somewhat  clo.sely  confined  to  what 
was  originally  the  ( )ld  Xorthwest  Ter¬ 
ritory,  the  collection  has  become  very 
highly  specialized.  That  is,  it  contains 
not  only  the  general  works  on  this  sub¬ 
ject,  but  monographs  dealing  with  par¬ 
ticular  events  and  ])eriods,  early  news¬ 
papers,  manu.scri]jts,  documents,  prints, 
]K)rtraits,  maps,  and  historic  relics  illus¬ 
trating  almost  every  conceivable  pha.se  of 
historical  and  archaelogical  research  con¬ 
cerning  the  Xorthwest. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  the  entire 
collection  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1871, 
and  again  in  1874,  it  will  be  understood 
what  almf)st  heroic  effort  must  have 


J/.  JR/L  CAINE* 

been  expended  in  reassembling  it.  An 
example  of  this  is  found  in  the  action  of 
the  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  who  at  the 
time  of  the  first  fire  had  collected  for 
the  society  a  complete  file  of  the  “Demo¬ 
crat”.  This  was  of  course  destroyed 
but  the  ashes  of  the  great  fire  had 
scarcely  cooled  when  he  began  the  second 
time,  and  the  result  of  his  labors  stand 
on  the  shelves  to-day  a  monument  to  this 
Chicago  grit  and  energy.  But  Chicago 
people  and  members  of  other  historical 
societies  in  this  country  were  not  alone 
in  their  efforts  to  re-establish  this.  Do¬ 
nations  of  money  and  books  came  in 
from  many  foreign  countries.  The  mag- 
mticent  painting  by  Edward  Annitage, 
was  the  gift  of  the  London  “Graphic” 
to  the  City  of  Chicago  as  a  memorial  of 
the  great  fire,  and  was  in  turn  presented 
by  the  city  to  this  society.  The  picture 
is  allegorical,  representing  Chicago  in 
distress,  ministered  to  by  Columbia  and 
Great  Britain,  while  smoldering  ruins 
form  the  background. 

Above  is  a  view  of.  thi^  present  home 
of  the  society  where  all  of  its  collections 
are  housed.  In  this  building  fireproof 
construction  has  l)een  carried  to  an  ex¬ 
tent  exceeded  in  no  other  library  in  the 
world.  Not  only  every  part  of  the  build¬ 
ing  is  made  either  of  stone  or  of  iron, 
but  all  shelving,  desks,  chairs,  tables,  and 
even  waste-paper  baskets  are  of  the  same 
materials,  ,  and  all  of  these  are  so  grace¬ 
ful  of  desigu»^J  .so  wel^^^lapted  to  their 
purpose  thal^^e  To*^n*^f^esent  a  most 
attractive  appearance.  A  minute  study 
of  this  building  was  made  by  Dr.  A.  B. 
.Meyer,  director  of  the  Royal  Museum 
of  Dresden,  and  in  his  official  report 
(  1901  )  he  s])eaks<>f  it  at  length  in  terms 
of  the  highest  commendation.  This  ab¬ 
solute  safety  from  fire  has  made  this 
library  a  favorite  repository  for  dona¬ 
tions  of  valuable  manuscripts,  family 
[)apers,  relics,  special  private  collections, 
and  portraits.  In  fact  the  jtractice  of 
presenting  portraits  of  jtrotninent  citi- 

*I,ibrarian  of  the  ChicaRo  Historical  Society. 


422 


THE  PRINCESS 


zens,  and  pioneers  of  Chicago  has  been 
so  long  continued  that  a  special  room  has 
been  set  apart  as  a  gallery  where  these 
portraits  are  exhibited.  This  collection 
is  increasingly  interesting  and  useful, 
supplying  as  it  does  authentic  portraits 
of  persons  connected  with  the  history  of 
our  city. 

The  collections  of  paintings  and  his¬ 
torical  objects  have  been  arranged  as  far 
as  possible  in  accordance  with  the  his¬ 
torical  periods  covered  by  the  collection 
of  books.  This  first  period  is  two  fold 
consisting  of  the  time  of  the  Mound- 
builders  and  the  American  Indians.  This 
period  is  represented  in  the  library  by 
the  works  of  Bancroft,  Brinton,  Catlin, 
Drake,  Schoolcraft,  Winsor  and  others, 
supplemented  by  the  publications  of  the 
historical  and  archaelogical  societies. 
The  same  period  is  represented  in  the 
museum  by  implements,  weapons, 
jewelry,  articles  of  dress,  and  by  bronze 
reliefs  and  portraits  of  Indians  by  cele¬ 
brated  artists. 

The  second  period,  beginning  in  1673, 
is  the  period  of  discovery  and  own¬ 
ership  by  the  French.  This  is  the 
period  richest  both  in  chronicles 
and  relics.  How  chanuing  it  is  to 
turn  from  the  printed  pages  even 
of  Charlevoix,  and  the  Journals  of  Mar¬ 
quette,*  Joliet,  Hennepin,  and  Allouez 
to  manuscripts  by  their  hands,  mellowed 
and  yellowed  with  age,  and  signed  with 
intricate  flourishes,  or  after  laboring  with 
LaSalle  and  Tonty  through  the  wilder¬ 
ness  and  at  the  Court  of  Versailles  (with 
Margry  or  Parkman  for  our  guides) 
what  revelation  to  be  brought  face  to 
face  with  their  portraits  in  oil  or  bronze 
together  with  that  of  Louis  XIV.  To 
young  readers  it  is  of  great  assistance 
after  reading  repeatedly  in  the  accounts 
of  Marquette  of  “the  portage”  which  of 
course  refers  to  the  present  Chicago,  to 
examine  the  beautiful  series  of  maps 
colored  by  hand,  showing  the  routes  by 
which  the  early  explorers  reached  the 
Des  Plaines  River  and  finally  the  Illin¬ 
ois,  after  their  voyage  upon  Lake  Alich- 
igan  from  Green  Bay  and  Mackinac. 

The  period  of  French  colonization  be¬ 
gan  by  LaSalle  and  carried  on  by  Iber¬ 
ville  and  Bienville,  is  fully  illustrated 

*Recit  des  Voyages  et  des  Decouvertes  en  I'annee  1673. 
Paris,  16S1 . 


by  books  and  relics.  On  the  settlement  at 
Kaskaskia,  supposed  to  be  the  oldest 
permanent  European  settlement  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  the  library  has  many 
valuable  disquisitions  but  more  interest¬ 
ing  than  all  to  the  seriou  student  are 
copies  of  the  Parish  Record  Books.  This 
parish  was  described  in  1764  by  Father 
Meurin  as  Parish  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception  of  the  Virgin,  Village  of 
Kaskaskias,  Country'  of  the  Illinois, 
i'rovince  of  Louisiana,  Diocise  of  Que¬ 
bec.  In  the  Records  we  may  read  in  the 
hand  of  Father  Gavier,  March  20,  1695. 
the  birth  of  Pierre  Aco,  son  of  Michael 
Aco  the  companion  of  Father  Hennipin. 
The  connection  of  this  same  Aco  with 
the  settlement  period  is  still  further 
evidenced  by  his  signature  to  a  deed  (the 
first  Illinois  deed)  by  which  Francois  de 
la  Forrest  conveys  to  him  one-half  oi 
Forrest’s  part  of  the  land  granted  to  him 
and  Tonty.  This  deed  signed  by  For¬ 
rest,  April  19,  1693,  and  made  payable 
“a  Chicagou”  is  in  the  possession  of  the 
society.  The  grant  is  of  a  quarter  inter¬ 
est  in  the  seignory  of  Fort  St.  Loiiis,  on 
what  is  now  known  as  Starved  Rock,  on 
the  Illinois  River.  In  1768  the  bold 
signature  of  Pierre  Gibault  (who  later 
was  of  such  great  assistance  to  Clark  I 
announces  that  he  assumes  the  function 
of  “Cure  des  Kaskaskias.”  The  register 
runs  on  into  the  nineteenth  century  and 
we  note  in  passing,  that  on  May  22. 
1806,  Pierre  Menard,  widower,  and  An- 
gelique  Saucier  were  married.  Now  if 
we  wash  we  may  cross  over  to  the 
museum  and  see  the  Indian  coat  of  this 
same  Pierre  Menard,  and  until  about 
twenty  years  ago  we  might  have  visited 
at  Kaskaskia  the  Menard  mansion,  with 
its  furniture  and  books  just  as  left  by 
their  owner.  The  Father  of  Waters  has 
long  since  claimed  as  his  own  this  man¬ 
sion  and  indeed  all  Kaskaskia. 

We  will  not  linger  with  the  period 
covering  the  struggle  between  France 
and  England  and  ended  by  the  Treaty  of 
Paris,  1763,  but  pass  lightly  on  our  way 
to  the  Revolutionary  period.  Here  we 
cannot  mention  too  early  nor  praise  too 
long  tlie  particular  hero  of  the  North¬ 
west — George  Rogers  Clark.  After 
thrilling  with  Roosevelt,*  and  Winsor.t 

♦winning  of  the  West.  Vol.  2.  Chapter  2-6. 

tWestward  Movement.  Chapter  8. 


THE  PRINCESS 


423 


over  Clark's  almost  unaided  conquest  of 
the  Northwest,  we  may  turn  to  gaze  at 
the  portrait  of  him  in  the  Reading  Room, 
and  find  in  that  stern  countenance  the 
lines  of  strength  that  assured  the  success 
of  his  daring  undertaking.  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  when  he  led 
the  attacks  on  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes 
he  was  not  the  grim  old  fighter  of  this 
portrait  but  a  youth  of  twenty-six.  It 
was  only  after  the  embittering  experi¬ 
ence  and  neglect  with  which  his  enter¬ 
prise  was  repaid  that  these  lines  of 
austerity  marked  his  handsome  features. 
But  let  us  not  fancy  that  we  are  one  whit 
more  discriminating  than  those  very  peo¬ 
ple  of  Virginia,  who  sent  him  a  sword 
when  he  needed  provisions  and  men,  if 
we  contemplate  with  complacency  the 
idea  of  changing  the  name  of  the  street 
honored  in  being  named  for  him.  We 
should  search  long  in  the  annals  of  Illi¬ 
nois  for  a  hero  more  illustrious. 

Space  is  wanting  to  dwell  upon  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  and  the  Lewis  and 
Clark  Expedition,  although  the  library 
contains  four  folio  volumes  of  the  papers 
of  General  James  Wilkinson,  Governor 
of  Louisiana  in  1805.  We  can  onlv 
jmuse  to  mention  the  James  iMadison 
j^apers,  contained  in  eight  quarto  vol¬ 
umes,  presented  to  the  society  by  one  of 
its  members,  Mr.  Marshall  Field,  and 
consisting  of  letters  and  papers  of  Mad¬ 
ison  from  the  time  he  was  a  delegate  to 
the  Continental  Congress  until  after  lie 
retired  from  the  Presidency  to  private 
life. 

Naturally,^  the  jx^riod  following  the 
erection  of  Illinois  into  a  territory  is  par¬ 
ticularly  interesting  to  us  who  are  living 
here  to-day.  In  i8ckj  Ninian  Edwards 
was  appointed  by  President  Madison  to 
be  the  first  governor  of  Illinois  Territory. 
This  period  of  Illinois  histor\'  is  illus¬ 
trated  by  some  uniciue  documents, 
namely,  the  papers  of  Governor  Ed¬ 
wards.  A  selection  of  these  pajx'rs  has 
been  published  by  tbe  society.  It  is  dif¬ 
ficult  to  turn  from  the  ])a])ers  of  thi.s 
courtly  governor  of  Illinois,  whose  hand¬ 
some  ])ortrait  in  powdered  wig,  and  ruf¬ 
fled  shirt  hangs  in  the  Reading  Room, 
without  lingering  over  his  great  .services 
(o  the  state,  but  the  minute  study  of  his 
life  and  character  must  be  left  to  stu¬ 
dents  who  can  visit  the  library  and  ex¬ 


amine  at  length  his  personal  documents. 

A  companion  volume  to  the  Edwards 
Papers  is  the  History  of  the  English  Set¬ 
tlement  in  Edwards  County,  by  George 
Flower,  the  manuscript  having  been  pre¬ 
sented  to  the  society  by  the  author  in 
i860,  and  the  expense  of  the  publication 
being  borne  by  Mr.  Levi  Z.  Leiter,  also 
a  member  of  the  society.  Portraits  of 
Air.  and  Airs.  B'lower  hang  in  the  Read¬ 
ing  Room,  and  near  by  is  one  of  Alorris 
Birkbeck.  Reminiscent  of  Edwardsville 
is  the  collection  of  bank  notes  issued  by 
the  Bank  of  Edwardsville,  in  1819-20. 
That  bank  of  wbicb  Judge  Theophilus 
\\A  Smith  was  cashier.  Judge  Smith’s 
portrait  hangs  near  by. 

Finally  we  reach  the  period  when  his¬ 
torical  interest  begins  to  center  about 
Chicago  in  earnest.  Not  to  enter  into 
the  recent  revival  of  the  controversy  re¬ 
garding  the  origin  of  the  name  “Chi¬ 
cago,”  a  word  as  to  its  spelling  may  not 
be  out  of  place.  The  Honorable  John 
Wentworth  in  Congress  occupied  a  seat 
near  that  of  John  Quincy  Adams  who 
seeing  Air.  Wentworth  write  “Chicago,” 
said :  “That’s  the  way  everybody  spells 
it  novv ;  but  under  my  administration,  no 
two  government  officers  spelled  it  the 
same  way,”  and  added,  “I  see  you  have 
not  settled  upon  your  pronunciation  yet, 
as  members  of  your  own  delegation  pro¬ 
nounce  it  differently.”  In  1803,  while 
Illinois  was  still  a  part  of  Indiana  Terri¬ 
tory,  a  fort  was  erected  upon  this  site 
and  named  Fort  Dearborn  in  honor  of 
General  Henry  Dearborn.  This  fort  was 
built  and  commanded  by  Captain  John 
Whistler.  For  several  years  Chicago 
consisted  simply  of  the  fort  and  the  home 
and  trading  establishment  of  John  Kin- 
zie.  The  portrait  of  Air.  Kinzie,  justly 
called  the  “Father  of  Qiicago,”  hang.s 
in  the  Lecture  Hall.  Another  priceless 
relic  of  Air.  Kinzie  is  his  Dictionary  of 
the  Winnebago  Language,  in  manu¬ 
script.  An  exact  model  of  Fort  Dear¬ 
born  made  from  plans  drawn  by  Captain 
Whistler,  and  complete  in  every  partic¬ 
ular  is  a  valuable  aid  in  studying  the 
facts  alK>ut  the  massacre.  Among  works 
dealing  with  the  fort  and  massacre  mav 
be  mentioned  Airs.  Kinzie’s  Narrative, 
printed  at  Chicago  in  1844,  John  Went¬ 
worth’s  Recollections  of  Early  Chicago 
ami  Fort  Dearborn,  Dr.  Simmons’ 


424 


THE  PRINCESS 


Heroes  and  Heroines  of  the  Fort  Dear¬ 
born  Massacre,  and  Joseph  Kirkland’s 
Chicago  Massacre  (1893). 

Not  far  from  the  model  of  Fort  Dear¬ 
born  in  the  niiiseum  is  a  mahogany 
cabinet  containing  the  bones  of  John 
Lalime,  an  Indian  interpreter,  who  came 
to  his  death  accidentally  in  an  encounter 
with  Air.  Kinzie.  On  the  wall  near  by 
this  grewsome  relic  hangs  a  sketch  in 
water  colors  of  the  old  Kinzie  mansion, 
with  its  row  of  Lombardy  poplars  that 
waved  in  the  breezes  from  the  river  op¬ 
posite  the  fort,  at  what  is  now  Pine  and 
North  Water  streets.  But  even  to  touch 
upon  the  romantic  incidents  connected 
with  this  house  and  family  would  exceed 
the  limits  of  this  article.  Fortunately 
the  record  of  them  is  found  recounted 
by  Airs.  Juliette  A.  Kinzie  in  Wau-Bun, 
that  classic  of  the  Northwest.  Of  this 
delig'htful  book,  the  library  possesses 
three  distinct  editions,  the  original 
printed  in  1856,  the  luxurious  edition 
published  by  the  Caxton  Club,  contain¬ 
ing  voluminous  notes  by  Reuben  Gold 
Thwaites,  and  the  popular  edition  by 
Airs.  Elinor  Kinzie  Gordon,  grand¬ 
daughter  of  John  Kinzie,  the  two  latter 
being  published  in  1901. 

Another  historic  home  of  the  earlv 


period  was  “Hardscrabble.”  This  has 
also  been  immortalized  in  literature  and 
in  the  possession  of  the  society  is  the 
rare  volume  of  Sartain’s  Lmion  Alag- 
azine  for  1856,  in  which  appears  the  title 
“Hardscrabble,  a  Tale  of  Chicago,  by 
Alajor  Richardson.”  This  story  also 
deals  with  the  massacre. 

And  here  this  catalogue  ( for  it  is  little 
else)  of  documents  and  relics  must  end 
where  some  will  say  it  should  have  be¬ 
gun.  In  defense  I  will  only  quote  what 
“Long  John”  Wentworth  said  in  one  of 
his  Sunday  afternoon  lectures  in  1877: 
“If  I  should  undertake  to  write  the  his¬ 
tory  of  Chicago,  I  should  close  my  first 
chapter  with  the  massacre,  August  15, 
1812.  But  who  can  tell  where  I  should 
begin  it?”  Later  he  darkly  hints  that 
he  should  begin  it  at  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Columbus. 

In  conclusion,  it  only  remains  to  say 
that  the  collections  are  open  at  all  times 
to  visitors  and  students,  and  that  cata¬ 
logues  and  indices  are  in  course  of  prep¬ 
aration  which  make  available  the  riches 
of  this  storehouse.  The  president  of  the 
societv  is  Air.  John  N.  Jewett,  who  has 
held  that  office  since  the  death  of  Air. 
Edward  G.  Alason,  in  1899. 


Opportunity. 

Alaster  of  human  destinies  am  I! 

Fame,  love  and  fortune  on  my  footsteps 
wait. 

Cities  and  fields  I  walk.  I  penetrate 
Deserts  and  seas  remote,  and  passing  by 
Hovel  and  mart  and  palace,  soon  or  late, 

I  knock,  unbidden,  once  at  every  gate! 

If  sleeping,  wake;  if  feasting,  rise  before 
I  turn  away.  It  is  the  hour  of  fate, 

And  they  who  follow  me  reach  every  stale 
Alortals  desire,  and  conquer  every  foe 
Save  death;  but  those  who  doubt  or  hesi¬ 
tate. 

Condemned  to  failure,  penury  and  woe. 

Seek  me  in  vain  and  uselessly  implore. 

I  answer  not,  and  I  return  no  more! 

— John  J.  Ingalls. 


